A critical review of three paradoxical phenomena, occurring in the dynamic stability of finite-dimensional autonomous mechanical systems, is carried out. In particular, the well-known destabilization paradoxes of Ziegler, due to damping, and Nicolai, due to follower torque, and the less well known failure of the so-called 'principle of similarity', as a control strategy in piezo-electro-mechanical systems, are discussed. Some examples concerning the uncontrolled and controlled Ziegler column and the Nicolai beam are discussed, both in linear and nonlinear regimes. The paper aims to discuss in depth the reasons of paradoxes in the linear behavior, sometimes by looking at these problems in a new perspective with respect to the existing literature. Moreover, it represents a first attempt to investigate also the post-critical regime.
Keywords: Defective eigenvalues; Eigenvalue sensitivity; Hopf bifurcation; Nicolai paradox; Piezoelectric control; Post-critical behavior; Semi-simple eigenvalues; Ziegler paradox.